*flies into your house through one of your windows* I AM SO SORRY I AM THE WORST AUTHOR EVER WHAT TYPE OF WRITER DOESN'T WRITE IDEK SO YES SORRY TO AMERICAN AND CANADA AND ALL OF THE OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD THAT I HAVE DISGRACED BY NOT WRITING I AM VERY SORRY AND I HOPE YOU WILL ACCEPT THIS APOLOGY NOW PLEASE ENJOY THIS CHAPTER OF CROW THAT IS LOOOOOOOONG OVERDUE *flies away*
"Wait, what if it's a squirrel? With lasers!?" "Whatever it is it isn't a squirrel…" "What do you mean—" Mikey turned on the flashlight and shined it on whatever Cori was looking at. "Who's that," he asked. "I don't know," Cori said. The light from Mikey's flashlight did not illuminate everything, but what Cori did see she wasn't sure she liked.
In front of them was a large bird. But it wasn't a normal bird. It was a mutant. It had long, unkempt, blond hair and was covered in reddish brown feathers. Cori crouched down next to the mutant hesitantly.
"Careful," Mikey whispered. "You think I don't know that?" Slowly Cori reached out and tapped the mutant on its shoulder. There was no reaction. "Do you think it's…" "Dead? No its breathing," Cori explained. Gently she rolled the mutant onto its back and brushed the hair out of its face. The mutant's face looked like a human's… Except for the fact that instead of a normal nose and mouth it had a large black beak. Mikey crouched next to Cori and poked the mutant. "Its hurt," he said quietly. Cori looked to Mikey then back to the mutant. He was right; there were cuts all over its body, most likely from crashing through the window.
"What do we do," Mikey asked without looking away from the bird mutant. Cori shrugged. "Maybe we should bring it back to the lair." "No way," Mikey yelled, "Splinter will freak!" "He was okay when I was at the lair." "You weren't there for the hour lecture!" "Alright alright we won't take it to the lair," Cori said, "We can keep it in the Shellraiser until it gets better. Agreed?" Michelangelo made a face but eventually gave in. "Fine…" "Alright then. Sooo, you want to carry it to the Shellraiser?" "How come I have to!?" Cori calmly looked down at her crutch then back at Mikey with a blank expression. "Oh cause your leg and… yeah I'll just do that now," Mikey said.
Gently he picked up the mutant and made his way towards Cori's room. "I'll catch up to you," Cori called after him. She turned back to the carnage that was her living room. Cori frowned and said in a low voice "Nothing's changed…"
Carefully she walked over to the window that the mutant came in through, trying to avoid the shards of glass littered on the floor. Cori looked out the window. "Where did you come from?" she muttered to herself. She tore her gaze from the city and made her way back to her room. She grabbed a bag she set near the door and started to climb out through her window. "Need help?" Mikey called out from below. Cori silently nodded. "What? I can't hear you!" "Yeah… I need help."
Cori stopped the Shellraiser. "We're here," she said unenthusiastically. Behind her Mikey was sitting with the mutant, its head on his lap. Delicately he placed the mutants head down and stood up. "I think you should apologize to April." "What?" "I mean, I think it would help." Cori turned away from Michelangelo and sighed. "Yeah, it probably would. I just got so angry you know and—" Cori felt a hand on her shoulder. "I know. We kinda had a whole conversation about this earlier." Cori smirked. "So let's get out of here because I'm really craving some pizza," Mikey added as he helped Cori get up from the driver's seat. "What would we ever do without your words of wisdom, Mikey?" "Probably starve."
Cori opened up the Shellraiser's door and jumped. In front of her was Leonardo. "Geez Leo, don't scare me like that," Cori mumbled. "You found a mutant? And brought it to the lair!" "Actually we brought it to the Shellraiser," Mikey corrected. "Which is ten feet away from the lair!" Mikey pointed to Cori and said "It was her idea." "What! You can't just throw me under the bus like that! This was a team effort," Cori said. Mikey just shrugged. "I can't believe you guys," Leo started to ramble, "I mean think about what Splinter's going to do if he sees it! We can't have everyone person we find live with us!" "Wait," Cori interrupted, "how did you know we brought back a mutant? You left after…" "Your temper tantrum?" "I wasn't going to use those words exactly but—" "Mikey texted me," Leonardo answered.
Cori looked at Mikey with a shocked expression. "Mikey!" "What!? Did you think we would raise the mutant back to recovery on our own? I can't even raise myself!" Cori scowled and crossed her arms. "Mikey go take Cori back to her room to rest while we take care of the mutant," Leo ordered. "We?" Cori turned towards Mikey. "How many people did you tell!?" Michelangelo shrugged and said in a small voice "All of them." Cori made wild gestures in the air with her arms. "What, did you tell all of the Kraang too!?" "I WAS UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE OKAY!" Cori looked away and snorted. "Can't even trust a turtle these days," she muttered underneath her breath. "Can you just do what I asked," Leonardo said.
Cori was about to snap back at him but instead bit her tongue. She could not afford another fight with her friends today. One was already enough. Besides, Leo looked exhausted and honestly like he could not care less. She rolled her eyes and awkwardly walked into the lair. Cori still hadn't gotten used to the crutch. As she walked into the lair's main entrance, she almost knocked into Raph. "S-sorry," Raph said, flustered. "It's fine," Cori mumbled. She started walking off again when he grabbed her arm.
Cori desperately hoped that this wasn't going to be a lecture on her behavior or how he's disappointed. She already was done with those. "Raph, if it's about how I treated April, yeah I know I screwed up. I don't need everyone reminding me," Cori said bitterly. "Actually, um, can we talk after all of this?" "Why?" "I just need to talk that's all." Cori looked at him skeptically. It did not seem like he was going to lecture her afterwards but when you're not psychically linked to someone it can be hard to tell. Finally Cori nodded and said "Yeah, sure." Cori was about to leave again when Raph said "Oh and I think you should avoid April for a while. She's still a little… upset about the whole thing that happened earlier." "Oh yeah," Cori said with a chuckle, "I can tell that she's still angry." Even without the mental link, Cori could feel April glaring at her from across the room. Cori swore she felt the back of her head starting to burn.
Quickly she hurried to her room where she practically fell on her bed. She screamed out in frustration and rolled over, her face on top of her pillow. She must have laid like that for awhile considering she was in the same position when Raphael came into her bedroom. He closed the door behind him and stared at Cori with a confused expression. "Uuuh, what are you doing?" "To be honest, I don't even know anymore," Cori said without rolling over, making her words muffled. Raph smiled. "Alright then." He sat down on the bed, next to Cori's legs.
"So," Cori said, continuing to talk into the pillow, "what did you want to talk about?" Raphael cracked his knuckles nervously. "I just wanted to say that I'm… sorry."
The room was dead silent until Cori got the courage to say "What?"
"I said that I'm so—" Cori rolled over and looked at Raph in the eyes. "No, I heard that. But what are you apologizing for?" Raph avoided Cori's gaze. "I guess, for everything." "…What?" "I just feel bad you know." Raph glanced at Cori. "For everything." "But you didn't do anything." "Yeah, I kinda did. I just feel like I'm guilty for getting you in this… position." "Raph I don't—"
"If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have gotten your leg hurt and got into this whole thing with April and stuff, okay?" They held each other's gaze for a moment until Raph looked away. "I should have listened to Donnie that day when we went on a… date. If I did you wouldn't have gotten hurt." "Pffft, do you honestly think that'd I stay at the lair while you guys went off to fight?" Cori asked. "Yes. I mean no. I mean, I don't know. You can be unpredictable!" Raphael groaned and fell backwards onto the bed. He spread out his arms even though the one arm hung off the end of the bed. "I just feel bad."
"Raph, it's really not your fault," Cori said, "None of it is your fault. It was my decision to fight along you guys that night. And it was my decision to punch April. Even thought I regret it. So why do you feel like it's your fault?" Raph sighed and made gestures in the air. "I don't know. I guess it's like I can't protect everyone and if I can't protect the people I love that what can I do?" Raph sat up and turned towards Cori. "I like you Cori, I really do. So if I can't protect you and my brothers then what's the point? How am I supposed to defeat people like the Shredder if I can't even do the simple job of protecting my family!"
Cori sat in silence with Raph, trying to think of what to say. But she couldn't. Finally when she started to think of what words to say Raph stood up and said "Man, I made everything awkward now." He started to open the door when Cori shouted "Wait!" Raphael slowly turned around.
"Raph, I know that you want to protect everyone. And that it hurts to see people you love in pain. But you can't keep blaming yourself for what wasn't your fault. We all have to make our own decisions, and I've made some pretty crappy ones, but you shouldn't have to blame yourself for something that doesn't even involve you. We all make mistakes and get hurt, but you can't just think that sheltering your loved ones from this is going to help. You need to know that not everything is under your control and that it's not your fault that it's like this way."
Raphael looked at the floor as he said "Thanks." "Raph, are you crying?" "No," Raph said defensively, "there's just a lot of dust in this room." Cori smiled and patted the bed. Raph awkwardly sat down next to Cori. She grabbed his hand and together they sat like that.
"You know, it's kind of awkward trying to hold hands with a guy who only has three fingers," Cori said. Raphael chuckled. "And you say I'm bad at flirting." "It's not flirting, it's called observing."